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Pay-back time for tax-dodge builder

Date published: 30 April 2014

A FORMER Oldham builder has had more than a quarter of a million pounds confiscated after being earlier sentenced for failing to pay almost £75,000 in tax.

Peter Bell (77), of Dalefields, Delph, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of income tax, money laundering, fraud and failing to notify the authorities of a change in circumstances.

The confiscation follows his sentence of 15 months in jail in December.

In the summer of 2012, police raided Bell’s home and found a £311,940 stockpile of cash. Bell had worked as a builder from the age of 16 and was regularly paid cash-in-hand.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) calculated Bell should have paid £74,184 plus interest of £18,000 in income tax between 2002-2012.

In 1999 Bell declared himself paraplegic after an accident which led him to claim incapacity benefit. He was back working by 2001 but failed to inform the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) of the change in his circumstances. Officers calculated he received more than £42,000 in benefit.

On his 65th birthday Bell applied for pension credit, claiming less than £10,000 in savings.

Earlier this week, a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing produced an order to confiscate £142,170.06. He was ordered to repay £91,759.29 in unpaid tax. A confiscation order was made for him to repay £41,528.95 of ineligible benefits. If Bell fails to pay the £275,458.30, he will be ordered to serve an additional jail term.

Comments

Meanwhile on the other side of Manchester a gang of vicious thieves who broke into peoples homes and battered them into handing over their car keys have received sentences not much longer.
This man never has presented a threat to society and should never have been sent to prison, especially when dangerous criminals receive light sentences because there's no space to house them.
given a choice who would you want in your home Peter Bell or a gang of vicious thieves?

By Flake @ 30/04/2014 13:26:37

oh dear......ha ha ha ha ha you got what you deserved.

By Fitton Hill @ 30/04/2014 18:58:59

FLAKE, the Manchester gang got off lightly, this man got what he deserved, Your all about money. Your stupid analogy of never sending anyone to prison who BREAK THE LAW is completely annoying. If you don’t want to meet any of the inmates then don’t break the law. Just what does a person have to do in your eyes to deserve prison? This man stole from people who really needed that money, truly disabled people and me A TAX PAYER…..

By Fitton Hill @ 01/05/2014 07:17:35

Cannot believe Flake's comment - first he doesn't contribute to the system for years, but then has the cheek to claim from a system to which he has never contributed - deserves everything he got and should repay every penny.

By Powderpup @ 01/05/2014 08:53:09

Like it or lump it this is theft on a grand scale There are to many people in Society who have never paid into the system yet bleed it for all its worth .... We all have to pay tax ....even when we retire

By willmurray @ 01/05/2014 09:03:16

Flake u really live in a bubble !!! the mans not paid any tax and then continued to claim benefits whilst working - strikes me as a large scale fraud whereby you me and fitton hill and the general public are all victims, #justsaying

By thehairyone @ 01/05/2014 10:27:09

You have to remember that when you commit Benefit fraud and deliberately avoid tax, you aren't stealing off the Exchequer - you are stealing off children, the poor, the elderly and the sick.

By adwilliams134 @ 01/05/2014 13:39:22

I don't think it's me whose in a 'bubble' here I think there are too many people with no insight what is going on with sentencing.
There are a very limited number of prison places, and as a result some very dangerous criminals are not being sent there. On the other hand people who do not pose any threat are receiving long terms.
This isn't a question of soft on criminals, it's how you use scarce resources, and the commonly held belief that we can just send people to prison

By Flake @ 02/05/2014 07:59:56

regardless of the fact that there are no places is crazy.
It might be nice to have a system like the Americans have, with the super prisons - but that would require a tax increase and much building.
As for stealing from poor, elderly etc etc. That's not true. You're stealing from the super rich whom the Tory government wants to have a zero rate of inheritance tax. Any extra money into the exchequer will be used to fund this, not the ordinary folk.

By Flake @ 02/05/2014 08:04:12

That flake, is sphericals. You are trying to impose a future abstract onto a today reality.